No. XI.

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF BOOKS OF
CHARACTERS.

No. i.

A Caueat
for commen Cvr
setors vulgarely called
Uagabones, set forth by Thomas Harman.
Esquier. for the vtiliteand proffyt of hys
naturall Countrey. Newly agmented
and Jmprinted Anno Domini.
M.D.LXUjj.
Vewed, examined, and allowed, according vnto the
Queenes Maiestyes Iniunctions
[Roughly-executed wood-cut, of two persons receiving punishment
at the cart's tail from the hands of a beadle.]
Imprinted
at London in Fletestret at the signe of the
Faulcon by Wylliam Gryffith, and are to be
solde at his shoppe in Saynt Dunstones
Churche yarde in the West.

[4to. black letter, containing thirty folios, very incorrectly numbered.]

I commence my list of Characters, with a volume, which, although earlier than the period I originally intended to begin from, is of sufficient curiosity and interest to warrant introduction, and, I trust, to obtain pardon from the reader for the additional trouble I am thus preparing for him.

Mr. Warton, in his History of English Poetry, (iv. 74.) has given, with some trifling errors, a transcript of the title, and says he has a faint remembrance of a Collection of Epigrams, by the author, printed about 1599: these I have never been fortunate enough to meet with, nor do they appear in the collections of Ames or Herbert, neither of whom had seen a copy of the present work, although they mention Griffith's licence to print it as dated in 1566[BV].

It is dedicated to Elizabeth, countess of Shrewsbury; Mr. Warton thinks "with singular impropriety," although the motive appears at least to justify the measure, if it does not entitle the author to commendation. He addresses this noble lady as a person of extreme benevolence, and "as also aboundantly powrynge out dayly [her] ardent and bountifull charytie vppon all such as commeth for reliefe."—"I thought it good," he continues, "necessary, and my bounden dutye, to acquaynte your goodnes with the abhominable, wycked, and detestable behauor of all these rowsey, ragged rabblement of rake helles, that vnder the pretence of great misery, dyseases, and other innumerable calamites whiche they fayne through great hipocrisye, do wyn and gayne great almes in all places where they wyly wander."—On this account, therefore, and to preserve the kindness and liberality of the countess from imposition, Harman dedicates his book to that lady.